Choose A Right PCB Solder Mask Color

Dated：2018-02-15 Popularity：1185

In today's PCB industry, when an industrial designer makes a beautiful appearance, a hardware engineer can choose a solder mask color for the PCB. Instead of choosing a common green solder mask, there are other colors that you may consider for the best effect.

Black--A black solder mask is a rare option. Its high contrast against the silkscreen is offset by the extremely low visibility of trace and space. This may make identifying traces a painstaking process. It’s probably not the right choice if you’re not prepared to inspect the traces with magnifying glasses.

Blue--If you’re designing an Arduino shield, you may want to opt for blue as the solder mask color to match its host. While the contrast between traces and spaces is low for blue solder mask, it looks pleasing to the eye. The only concern is that dirt builds up easily on it.

Red--A red solder mask paints a picture of bold professionalism on the product. It has a slightly lower but sufficient contrast between the traces and spaces than the standard green solder mask. You’ll get a high visibility of the silkscreen as well against a red background.

White--It may be the opposite of the black solder mask, but share the common problem of low visibility of traces and space. As with any white-colored item, it can get dirty pretty quick and can be awfully tough to clean. To great part is that you can choose black silkscreen and it will look great.

Yellow--While not highly popular, choosing yellow as your PCB solder mask color is not entirely a bad option. It has reasonably high visibility of traces and spaces. Besides that, yellow is quite pleasant to the eye. The only consideration is you may want to choose black silkscreen as white ones have pretty low contrast.

Regardless of your choice, it is best to test a small amount of new color before ordering a high volume.